Why I can’t endorse “anti‑radiation” tablet and laptop cases — in plain language
I’ve spent nearly thirty years studying how the invisible energy from our gadgets seeps into our bodies. That work started with a promise to my first‑born daughter, who never got the chance to grow up. I told her I’d spend the rest of my life making sure other families got the truth about EMF safety — not half‑truths dressed up as products.
So here’s the truth, as simply as I can put it:
If a shield doesn’t sit between the antenna and your body every single time you use the device, it’s not protection.
It’s window dressing.
That single rule is why RF Safe has never endorsed the “anti‑radiation” folios and lap pads sold for tablets and laptops by brands like SafeSleeve and DefenderShield.
1 Phones vs. tablets and laptops — the geometry problem
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Phones are predictable. On a call the screen faces your ear. In a pocket you can be trained to keep the screen toward your leg. Knowing that, I can build a thin shield into the front of a phone case and trust that it will usually be in the right place.
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Tablets and laptops never sit still. They lie flat, stand like tents, balance on knees, perch on pillows, or spin to portrait in a kid’s hands. Every flip changes where the antenna sits relative to you. A folio cover lined with metal can be the barrier one moment and a reflector the next.
That constant shape‑shifting turns a “shield” into just another moving part in a bad magic trick.
2 What really happens when you slap metal on a gadget
Metal doesn’t swallow radiation — it redirects it.
Think of EMF energy like water from a garden hose. Block the stream with your hand and you’ll get spray in new directions and more pressure in the line. A shield that’s behind the antenna — not in front of it — does three things:
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Detunes the antenna. The radio senses a weaker signal and turns up its power to compensate. (More volume, same song.)
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Bends the beam. The strongest part of the signal can now shoot straight through your abdomen or lap.
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Stays closer to vital organs. On a laptop pad, you’re now inches nearer to the Wi‑Fi chips under the keyboard while the shield is busy “protecting” your thigh bone — a body part that never cared about microwaves.
Bottom line: shield the femur, fry the belly. That’s marketing, not safety.
3 Why SafeSleeve‑style folios miss the mark
Take a typical tablet folio. The sales photo shows a meter reading drop with the cover closed over the screen. Great — until you remember nobody watches Netflix with the cover shut. Flip that cover behind the tablet (the only way to hold the thing) and the metal layer is now hugging the antennas and hugging you. You’ve moved the blast zone closer to the very organs you meant to protect.
Laptop shields repeat the mistake. They brag about blocking radiation from “soaking” your legs while shoving the transmitter closer to reproductive organs and, in a pregnant user, the developing fetus. It’s like wearing a helmet on your knee and calling it head protection.
4 “But Wi‑Fi is low power, isn’t it?”
Lower than a cell tower, sure — but not silent. When you muffle the antenna, the device cranks itself up to keep the connection alive. Ten times the power in bursts is common, and those bursts happen inches from your body. Power control is automatic; it doesn’t wait for your permission.
5 What a real low‑EMF design looks like
If you truly want to tone down radiation, skip the gimmicky shield and fix the source:
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Put the antennas at the far edge so the main beam heads away from your lap, not through it.
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Let radios power down when idle. If the screen’s off or the tablet hasn’t moved, the transmitters should nap too.
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Think light instead of microwaves. Li‑Fi (data through light) sidesteps radio waves entirely.
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Offer honest barriers. A small silver‑thread cloth between device and body blocks stray energy without messing up the antenna.
Those steps take real engineering, not a sheet of foil sewn into a cover.
6 Advice for Daylight Computer (and everyone else designing “safe” tech)
If your mission is health, stay away from folio shields unless you’re ready to test every angle a human can invent — lap, couch, plane seat, kid mode, you name it. That’s hundreds of measurements, not one glamour shot. Otherwise the cover will work in the lab and backfire on the living‑room sofa.
Put your time into smarter antenna placement, automatic power‑down, and future‑proof paths like Li‑Fi. Those choices protect people on every page, not just the brochure.
7 Take‑home tips for everyday users
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Keep distance. A hand‑span of air cuts exposure about ten‑fold.
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Download, then disconnect. Airplane‑mode reading is kinder than streaming in bed.
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Go wired when you can. A cheap USB keyboard or headset moves the radio away from your core.
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Don’t be fooled by shields that guard the wrong body part.
Final word
I’m not here to sell fear or play gadget cop. I’m here to keep a promise — that no family will trust RF Safe advice and get hurt by the fine print. A shield in the wrong place is fine print written in metal. Until accessory makers fix that, my answer is “No, thank you, and here’s why.”
Stay curious, stay skeptical, and remember: the laws of physics don’t take marketing meetings.
John Coates
Founder & Chief Scientist, RF Safe
